Welcome to Mourning Goats!

Friday, May 10, 2013

And we have a new winner in the fastest turn-around time for questions! Questions were sent at 4:56pm and returned to me at 7:07pm. I asked Richard a little bit about his "secret" to success, but after seeing how fast he got this back to me, I found that it's just because he works his ass off. Definitely one of my favorite interviews, thanks again, Richard!

1.
What comes to mind when you hear, "Mourning Goats?"

I see a lot of black shrouds and there is definitely a low,
guttural moan—surreal, strange and oddly touching.

2.
Medallion Press just bought an anthology you've been working on with Chuck
Palahniuk and Dennis Widmyer, what's it like working with the man who got you
started in writing?

We’re all really excited about this project. Mostly, I feel
honored that I was able to step in and help get this ball over the goal line,
yeah? So many wonderful people have been involved with this, the authors have
written such amazing stories, and it all started with Chuck, right? I have to
say that CP is the main reason I’m writing today. I was in a funk, my career as
an art director and graphic designer fun and paying the bills, but not
fulfilling. Like many, I saw Fight Club,
and then came to the Cult, and then read all of his work. It was a slap in the
face, a wake up call. To work with Chuck, to have my name alongside his, it’s
really an honor. I’m humbled by his generosity and his work inspires me. It’s just
a dream come true, really.

3.
You received an MFA from a low-residency program (as did I), what do you think
about low-residency programs as well as the teaching of creativity?

I really had so much fun—to be around “my people” like this,
to read and write, to talk about great books. Part of the reason I went to
Murray State University is that Holly Goddard Jones was teaching there, and Dan
Wickett, Matt Bell and Aaron Burch had just visited—all great minds that have
gone on to heavily influence my writing career. Back then, the MSU program was
reading Knockemstiff, by Donald Ray
Pollock, and I thought that was awesome. I was reading it, too. Being a part of
that program I read so many wonderful authors, some, people I’d never read
before. I got into Flannery O’Connor, Cormac McCarthy, Haruki Murakami, and
Mary Gaitskill, to name just a few people.

I had a job, and a family, so a low-res program was the best
option. I had some great teachers, and Dale Ray Phillips was my thesis advisor.
The man was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, and was an encyclopedia of
information. Tell him you were working on a story about swimming pools and he’d
rattle off three other stories, and tell you to go read them. The creativity,
the community, it’s all what you make of it. You get out of it what you put
into it. I wish they were more accepting of “genre fiction,” that they would
talk more about how to be a commercial success, to actually make a living at
it, and I wish they knew more about what’s going on in contemporary literature,
but otherwise, I had a blast.

4.
You took a class from one of the Mourning Goats Interviewees, Craig Clevenger.
What was it like learning from someone you admire so much?

That was another pivotal moment in my career. I’d read both
of his books, and took his class to see if I had any ability at all. If he told
me I sucked, I would have quit. He liked my work a lot, even compared it to an
idol of his, Steve Erickson, and I have to admit, I was surprised, and really
moved by his support. In fact, the one story he personally encouraged me to
send out, was “Stillness” which got accepted in Shivers VI (Cemetery Dance) where it was published alongside
Stephen King and Peter Straub—another dream come true. I owe Craig a lot.
Palahniuk, Clevenger and Baer, they have all been major influences on my
career, in a number of different ways.

5.
What's your writing schedule like these days? Do you write every day, do you
think it's necessary?

I don’t write every day. The last year has been a ton of
management—getting Disintegration to
my agent and out to publishers; sending off my thesis stories; editing two
anthologies. But I also rewrote my first book, Transubstantiate, as a YA title, and I’m part of a collection of
novellas called Four Corners, and
I’ve been writing as a part of the various WAR battles over at LitReactor.com.
I write when I find time, when a story comes to me, when I’m moved. I write for
deadlines, anthologies that get my attention. For example, when Michael
Gonzalez announced the whole Cipher
Sisters anthology at Thunderdome, I KNEW I wanted to write a story, so I
kept that brewing in my head, simmering for weeks, and then the story “Dance,
Darling” came spilling out. First time I’ve used German in a story. (Yes, the
story got in!) What’s necessary is to do what works for you, whatever that is.

6.
The more interviews I do, the more I realize how many tight-knit groups of
writers there are all over the world. What do you think about the support
system of the writer in general and in your world?

It’s so important. We need that network, a support system,
for when we fail, and for when we break through. Not all of our spouses and
kids and co-workers really “get” what we’re doing. For me it’s been The Velvet,
The Cult, Cemetery Dance, LitReactor, and of course, social media like Facebook
and Twitter. It’s silly, I suppose, but when I have a big announcement, and I
see the people that comment, that click “like,” these authors, editors and artists
that I really respect, it’s touching. It really is.

7.
You're very active on social media, do you think that self-promotion these days
is more important than ever?

I do. You never know where you’re going to be discovered,
you need to get the word out, build your audience. I don’t try to shove it down
people’s throats, but I’m always thrilled when I find a new fan, when something
I write really resonates with somebody, when it inspires people to write, or
submit their work, or just push through an obstacle. I have my mentors, my
rabbits to chase, the Stephen Graham Joneses and the Matt Bells of the world.
We’re all struggling to get our work published, and it’s my dream to be a
writer, a teacher, an editor, and a publisher. When you’re as small-time as I
am, you need every means of promotion you can get your hands on, and the time I
spend on Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, etc. it’s very important—it really helps
to get my name out there. And then, it’s a matter of the writing being good.
That’s all I can hope for, to get somebody to read a story, and hope I impress
them, entertain them, take them to another place and time and do something that
impacts them emotionally.

8.
Navigating your Facebook page, there are a lot of publication announcements. Do
you do anything other than write or is it a pretty 24/7 focus?

Oh, sure. I do other literary things—editing, teaching, advice
columns, and book reviews. And then outside of all of that I’m a father and a
husband. I love to read, see movies, play golf and tennis, softball—I do exist
in the real world.

9.
You recently "harpooned" one of your "white whales" in
writing, with a story in Midwestern
Gothic, where else would be a dream for you to publish?

Ha, just got that in the mail today. I was holding it in my
hands and looking at it, and then I set in on the shelf. I’m sending a copy to
my professor, Dale Ray, down at Murray. I wrote that story, “Garage Sales”
under his guidance. So many places, where to even start? Plus, I write across
so many different genres. I won’t hold my breath about The New Yorker, Tin House or The
Paris Review, but I’d love to get into The
Missouri Review, Cream City Review (short-listed there as we speak), Hobart, Juked, Barrelhouse, Caketrain, GUD,
Copper Nickel, Ploughshares—and those are just the literary places. As for
horror, I still haven’t gotten into Cemetery
Dance the magazine, or Shroud, Shock
Totem, and that damn Shimmer. Fantasy & Science Fiction is one I’d
love to get into, Clarkesworld, too, Fantasy Magazine. I got close with Ellery Queen, they’re a big name, as
well as Hitchcock’s—not to mention
smaller places like Needle.

10.
Your goal after getting the MFA was to teach, in the Chicago area, is that what
you're doing now? Is that still the goal?

My goal is definitely to teach, and I’ve finally started
getting in-person interviews. I’ve taught some shorter classes, a day at Story
Studio Chicago, and a two-week class at LitReacotr.com. It’s brutal out there.
I feel like I’ll have to take that MFA and cobble together something that is a
mix of writing short stories, novels, and columns, as well as editing,
teaching, and publishing. It’s all connected, and I love doing all of it, but
yeah, if I could make a living just writing? Wow, that would be amazing.

11.
I saw you got an agent last year, what do you see as the best part of having an
agent, other than saying you have an agent? ;-)

Ha, yeah, that is a bonus. Paula is getting me in front of
people that I couldn’t get to on my own. Without an agent you just can’t get in
front of the big six, and their imprints. Hell, you can’t get to a good number
of independent presses either. We’ve gotten so close. It’s come down to board
votes, losing by one vote. Paula really believes in my writing, my voice—she
thinks I’m special. And I know that sounds stupid, like I’m talking about my
mother or something, but isn’t that what we all want? She gets my voice, the
reason I write the way I do, the heavy settings, the lyrical prose, the layers
of language, emotion, metaphor, love, lust, darkness, death and rebirth. She
gets it all. And that's who I want representing me. The biggest problem with
the big publishers is they want a guaranteed success—they want to sell books,
so in many ways all that they want is a book with a broad appeal. My writing
does not appeal to everyone. But I’m okay with that. I’d rather be closer to
Palahniuk, Baer, and Cormac, than Grisham and Patterson.

12.
You're working with Shya Scanlon, another Mourning Goats Interviewee, at The Nervous
Breakdown. What do you do there and how do you like it?

Shya is great—he makes my writing so much better. He’s an
ideal editor, and one hell of an author himself. I loved his novel, Forecast. I’ve worked with several
editors, and it has been painful at times. I’ve had to rescind my review
before. But Shya gets it, he lets me speak about the books and authors I enjoy,
and say what I need to say—and then he steps in with his scalpel and trims the
fat. He’s amazing. I keep reviewing books at The Nervous Breakdown because of
the authors I profile, and my relationship with Shya. He’s just that good.

13.
In 2011 you were a residency at Writers in the Heartland, seven days in a house
with 9 other writers, what came of it and how did you get involved?

That was a lot of fun. Aside from my MFA, I’ve never done
anything like that. We wrote a lot, and then wandered the cornfields at night,
smoking clove cigarettes, howling at the moon. We’d sit in the hot tub and talk
about writing. We’d walk around the pond and get lost in the overarching
branches of the trees.

I wrote about 30,000 words while I was there—a novella
originally titled The Outskirts (now
called The Golden Geese) which is
being shopped by my agent as part of a bigger project called Four Corners, with Nik Korpon, Caleb
Ross, and Axel Taiari; a long short story, “Chrysalis,” which was just accepted
at Arcadia, out this May; and the
first 7,000 words of my third novel, Incarnate,
which has been stalled for a while. It was a great week. And I’m still friends
with a few of the authors and poets from back then.

14.
You've only been on the scene a few years and it seems like you're connecting
with all the right people. What do you think the biggest "secret" to
your success is? Other than the obligatory hard work?

Thanks for that, you’re a very generous Goat. I think it’s a
couple things. First, I have no fear. I have no problem asking any author for a
blurb, or advice. I just track them down. But it’s not about the name—I have to
have a genuine love for their work. So whether I'm talking to Peter Straub or
Tim O’Brien, Brian Evenson or Dan Wickett at Dzanc, I just speak from the
heart, and find common ground. I also do my best to support other authors, big
and small. The books I review at TNB are almost entirely independent small
presses, or if they are bigger presses, it’s that first or second book, that
breakthrough. You’d be surprised how easy it is to connect with people if you
just aren’t a dick. Plus, like you say, I try my best to put my money where my
mouth is. I don’t just stargaze and talk about things I’ve never done. I’m out
here in the trenches with everyone else, suffering, crying in the dark, hoping
and dreaming, glowing when I break through, grateful when the kind words and
acceptance comes. I’m constantly floored that Stephen Graham Jones, Craig
Clevenger, Karen Brown, Joey Goebel, Craig Davidson, Donald Ray Pollock, Scott
Phillips, Rob Roberge, Kealan Patrick Burke, Lisa Morton, C. W. LaSart, Damien
Walters Grintalis, and Max Booth III have all blurbed my work. Every time I
sent out a manuscript and ask for a blurb, I worry that they’ll pass, and many
people have, but when they come back with generous words, it’s just so amazing.

15.
What's your favorite and least favorite part of giving readings?

I hate the nerves, the way that I get sick to my stomach,
even if I know the crowd, even if I’ve read that story before. I love it when I
finally settle in and find my voice, when the crowd slips away, and I’m there,
in my story, wherever it is, and I’m sharing that vision with them, and they
react—they laugh or gasp, they go silent, heads bowed, a tear in their eye, and
then the applause. I just want to share with them what I’m feeling, and when we
connect, it’s really quite intimate.

16.
I saw that you released one story, “Transmogrify,” on kindle, as a teaser for
your short story collection, Staring Into
The Abyss. What success have you seen come out of this? It's a brilliant
idea!

Thanks, that was George’s idea over at Kraken. He’s an
amazing artist, but this publishing is a new thing to him. I think I’m the
second book he’s put out. It seemed like a smart thing to do. I don’t know if
it’ll translate into sales, last I heard we had several hundred downloads of
the free story. But when you’re an unknown author on an unknown press, you do
whatever you can to get the word out. The free eBook, the microsite, the
blurbs, the Tweets, Facebook, Goodreads, the book trailer, etc—you just throw
it at the wall and see what sticks. We’ve gotten good reviews so far, mostly 4
and 5 stars across the board. I know it’s not a perfect collection, what is,
but there are a few of my favorites in this group of stories, so I’m excited to
get it out there and find new people with my work.

17.
Staring Into the Abyss comes out this month (April 2013), you have one sentence
to sell it, what do you say?

“Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster, and if
you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.”—Nietsche

18.
Did I read that you were a designer before being a writer? Do you think that
that kind of creativity changed the way you see things and in turn, the way you
write?

Yes, I’ve been a graphic designer and art director for
almost twenty years. It’s still what I do for a living, my full-time work, how
I pay my mortgage. I do think it informs my writing, and visa versa. It’s all
connected—writing, television, film, music, art, dance, etc. There is beauty
and horror in all of it. I do see things in visual terms, my stories are almost
always short films in my head, and there is always color, the five senses, it’s
visceral to me, something real. I think that’s why at the end of my second
book, Disintegration, I started
crying, thought I might throw up. I’d been this man, this monster, for two
years. It had drained me of my own spirit and emotion and left me an empty
shell. I filled up again, but for a moment, it was intensely overwhelming.

19.
Who are some newer authors you'd like everyone to know about? Or anyone
currently blowing your mind?

Oh, man, where to start? I feel like I talk a lot about the
male writers I read, since I grew up reading genres that were dominated my men,
but lately, it’s been the women that have really been destroying me. In
addition to the names I’ve already mentioned earlier in this interview, here
are some women that I really love to read: Roxane Gay, Lindsay Hunter, xTx,
Amelia Gray, Ethel Rohan, Monica Drake, Amber Sparks, Jac Jemc, Mary Miller,
Paula Bomer, Claire Vaye Watkins, and so many others. They all take risks, they
all bring a lot of emotion and power to their stories, and they continuously
surprise me.

20.
What's next for Richard Thomas?

Well, Staring Into the
Abyss releases soon. I just had that story, “Garage Sales” come out in Midwestern Gothic. Up next is “Chrysalis”
in Arcadia out in May, and you know
about the anthology with Palahniuk, Burnt
Tongues, in August of 2014. I’m also editing an anthology for Black
Lawrence Press (The Lineup: 25
Provocative Women Writers) out in late 2014. You’ll see ALL of the women I
just mentioned in that anthology, such an amazing collection of edgy,
contemporary fiction—I was so lucky to get them all to say yes and contribute
to this book. It’s basically 25 of my favorite stories from the past five
years. Beyond that, there are other things in the works, but only time will
tell how they turn out! Wish me luck.

Thank
you!

And thank you, Goat. These were some excellent questions,
you obviously did your homework, and I really appreciate the support and
respect you’ve given me here, it means a lot.